Sword Art Online: Tales of the Brave
by wattsy104
Summary: We all know of the two superstars in the world of Aincrad. What about the others though? There has to have been more than just Kirito and Asuna. Well there was and this is their story. Follow the footsteps of these four players as they try to live without the spotlight while still being all powerful. Kirito and Asuna will be in this eventually but they aren't yet. Reviews welcomed!
1. Welcome to Aincrad

**A/N: Hi guys, this is my first fanfic (kinda, as my first sucks and I'm not counting it). This is one of my fave anime's and I've had this idea circling in my head for a while now, got the next chapter all lined up so It'll be posted real soon. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>My name is Caleb Mair and I'm so tired it's no wonder I passed out on the desk in my room. It's been a long couple of days and the lack of sleep has finally caught up to me. Why am I like this? Sword Art Online is why and that makes it all worth it. Sword Art Online is a video game, one that beats all others and it's it one to finally make full use of the Nervegear technology, this is one of the first VRMMORPG's and it sends the player into a new world, one filled with wonder and it's where I'll be going in two hours. There were only ten thousand copies sold and I waited outside the game store for nearly a full day to get myself a copy, a full day, outside, in November, just saying I'm still freezing now.<p>

Well a little about me anyway, I'm eighteen and am full British but born in Japan. My mother had moved to Japan to follow her dream of anchoring a news show in a foreign country (It's really weird I know) and my dad is an ambassador from Britain, they told me they met when my mother was doing a report on the British and Japanese relations and things spiraled from there. Enter me, front and centre now standing at 6 foot 2 and weighing in at 95 kilos, I've always been a big kid but add in the fact that I box, kick box and wrestle and people don't seem to say these things, not to my face at least. I learned how to fight ever since I had trouble at school when I was a kid, you know being British in a Japanese school was hard. Then again when I started fighting back and winning major tournaments for the school people seemed to like me a whole lot more, strange that isn't it? Anyway I've got light brown hair which looks like your typical mop, with bright blue eyes along with this I look like the opposite from any average Japanese person but its fine by me as it makes me stand out and for me, as a bit of an attention seeker it's the best thing to be.

I was staring at the case for Sword art Online for at least ten minutes, trying not to fall asleep again when I received a mini heart attack in the form of my best friend, Taro Nakamoto grinning like a maniac after he had just slapped me from behind.

"Jesus Christ Taro you scared me half to death. I don't have any spare energy to use for stuff like this," I complained as he just burst out laughing.

Taro looked like your average Japanese guy, standing at 6 foot and with his black hair tied back into a pony tail, there was nothing remarkable about him. But, the one thing that set him apart from most others was that this guy was a Taekwondo genius, seriously he never lost.

"I've got to have a bit of fun now don't I?" He gasped between heaves of laughter,

I tried to dive on him and trap him in a submission hold but he managed to wriggle free and run out of my bedroom for a second before reappearing with his own Nervegear and copy of the game we had spent so long waiting for, a massive grin spread across his face, which most likely was a mirror of my own, it was so close to the official launch. We didn't speak for a while, but we didn't need to, you could feel the excitement between the both of us, it was palpable.

"In an hour we'll be off conquering a new world,"

"You've been saying this for the past day or so now so can you please save me the speech again,"

Taro rolled his eyes as he flung himself onto the mattress I managed to squeeze into my small bedroom. You know you have to make guests feel as comfortable as possible, even if they could do it themselves.

We spend in the next hour talking about everything we had read about the game from all the reviews we found, trying for one last time to figure out all the different skill sets there would be. Admittedly we would never know until we were in there because neither of us were in the Beta, not for a lack of trying though it's just we weren't two of the lucky ones.

Taro finally stood up grabbing his Nervegear and own copy of the game before snapping in the game cartridge in and placing the Nervegear on his head.

"Heh, you look like Robo Cop gone wrong,"

I had to be quick to dodge the pillow thrown at my head from a slightly irritated Taro, but still I copied his own actions before laying down on my own bed. The last thing that happened before me and my best friend launched ourselves into virtual reality was a quick fist bump and nod of understanding over where to meet each other in game, on the east side of the plaza in the first town which was in all the reviews.

"Link Start!"

In an instant my field of vision went completely white except for 5 blue circles which represented: hearing, touch, taste, sight and smell. As each of these were synchronised they turned green and flew off the screen leading me to the log on screen, muttering ever letter under my breath as I did this, I always did this and it always led to Taro hacking onto whatever account it was as he was the only one who knew I did this. Next came the input screen, I usually went for something off the wall but this time as it was virtual reality I wanted something similar to my own name.

"How about…CaleM…"

As I typed it out it was accepted with a bing and I was transported to a white room with a mirror covering the far wall. All that was there was me, me in a pair of plain white boxers but before I could even be shocked by this a white control panel appeared before me allowing me to change my physical appearance. As I cycled through the options available different aspects of my body changed but nothing really appealed to me so I decided to keep my original features and only changed my hair. Darker brown in colour and now slicked back instead of my normal mop, nodding to myself that I looked sufficiently awesome I proceeded to clothe myself and chose a pair of pain blue jeans with a cream coloured, long sleeved t-shirt which was slightly open at the front with a pair of black military boots, accepting my decision I was smiling thinking of how amazing I looked, then again I always did.

The last screen that I needed to navigate past was labelled 'Character Build' and a list of options appeared with fifteen points to be placed into certain attributes. As I started allocating these points into the 5 different options available I thought of how Taro would be doing this as we would both be fighting together for most of the time we would play this.

'He'll be one of those annoying speed players' was the one thing that flashed through my mind, he was like this on every game he played, so I balanced mine accordingly, placing most points into strength, health and endurance with only one each going into speed and agility. Even though I was considering the balance of both my and Taro I still always loved playing as a tank, hit hard, take hard hits and move slow. The last thing I needed to do was choose a set of 'Starter Items', in this there were a list of weapons and armour that could be chosen, this was easy for me as I always used the same things over and over again, as I cycled through the multitude of options I found the two handed battle axe and the light mail and clicked accept.

"Finally, all ready to go," I muttered to myself as I was teleported to the starting town, the Town of Beginnings. As I got there I looked around and took in my surroundings before many other players logged on and it was amazing to see just how much like real life it was. From the detail in each individual stone to the feel of the wind and the warmth of the sun on my skin, for a few minutes I just stood and took in all my surroundings, admiring this new world that I had entered. It took me a while to come back to my senses and realise I had to go meet Taro at our own little meet point so, making my way through the growing crowds of players and NPC's alike I headed toward the east side of the plaza where the crowd thinned as most people were going into the streets where equipment was being sold. I was pretty much all alone when I got there with just a couple of random NPC's there to fill in the crowds, I grew impatient waiting for Taro and decided that if he didn't come soon he would have to find me himself as I would be going off to train.

After a couple of moments doing absolutely nothing I decided to have a look round my menu and look at the equipment that had been given to me so I swiped my hand down and flicked through the inventory section of the menu, finally equipping the items that I had been given, during this I also noticed that I had been given some health crystals and a teleport crystals noting that the game did set you up quite nicely at the beginning. Coming out of this menu I felt the weight of the armour and sheathed battle axe hit me, nothing too much but still noticeable.

"Thank You endurance stat,"

As I looked down at myself, admiring the look and feel of my new equipment a hooded figure passed close in front of me trying to get some kind of reaction,

"You really need to get better at this Taro," I stated pointedly as the hood lowered showing a comical grimace spread across his face,

"No reaction at all?" Would be his only question which was greeted by a stony silence as I started to walk away to where I thought the training fields would be. As he caught up he had a rapier hanging loosely around his waist and it was when I noticed,

"Have you changed a single thing about your appearance?"

"Why change anything when it's already perfect."

It was obvious we were getting close to the fields now as people were talking about the amount of experience or Col they had got. It was funny as some people were just being ridiculous saying that they had already got enough Col to buy a house or that they had just hit level ten.

"Rubbish, the game's only been up 15 minutes, you haven't got to that level unless you're a Beta Tester!"

One voice was raised higher than the others and after this the player who was claiming that he had just hit level ten was laughed off of the platform he was on red faced through embarrassment, yet still we carried on through the thronging crowds of the same falsely boasting players until we reached the fields around the starting town. The fields were vast expanses of grassland, sloping along gently with the curvature of the hills, the weather was warm enough that if you grinded for a long time you could feel sweat beginning to build up and there were plenty of monsters that you could train on, mainly boars with a few wolves thrown in for the higher levelled players, but for the minute both me and Taro were level one.

At this time I finally began to notice my health bar along with everyone else's, there was also the name of the player above this if you were close enough to notice, I shook my head,

"Nenru? Really, can't you think of anything else to use?" I laughed at my friend's lack of imagination when it came to choosing names on RPG's. All I got from this comment was a quick swipe which was easy enough to avoid as we moved out into the fields looking for a monster that had wandered away from the rest and would be easy pickings. Spotting such a target, a boar that had re-spawned on its own away from any other I unslung my axe from my back and ran wildly toward it with a shout of,

"First Kill is mine!" But before I even reached my first victim a flash of blue sped past me and killed the boar with a series of well measured strikes, as I pulled up I looked behind me to see if Taro had gone in front of me and stolen the kill, but he was still there looking as confused as I felt.

"If you play like that you'll never get anywhere,"

I turned back round the see the player who made the kill walking toward us afterwards, Immediately my temper flared and I felt myself grinding my teeth until Taro placed his hand on my shoulder trying to play the diplomat,

"This game has only just started; we weren't in the beta test so we don't know how to use the system yet,"

"Sorry, that came out, always happens to me,"

The new guy started to laugh openly at himself which made me feel slightly better, like it was a slip of the tongue as he continued,

"Look, let me make this up to you, I can see I annoyed both of you and I'm here to make friends not enemies so let me show you the ropes a bit,"

I was a bit taken aback by the offer, I mean after all the game wasn't even an hour old yet. But then again who was I to refuse something that would be so useful at the start of the game,

"Alright you've got yourself a deal, the name is CaleM and this here Nenru."

Shaking hands he smiled,

"Cool its Viktor by the way."

As we ambled over to where more boars had spawned I started to notice more about this guy other than the fact he could be really annoying and not notice it. He stood about the same height as me but he was a lot more lithe and had a buckler strapped to one arm and a short sword strapped around his waist. He had long blond hair with bright green eyes and looked like your stereotypical surfer dude, seemed to act like it as well judging from his lazy demeanour. All that faded from my mind though as he began to talk about the basics of the combat system before going off to kill about three boars roaming around the area with what he called 'Sword Skills'. I mean I knew about them but seeing them in action was an entirely different thing, it was amazing to see how it all worked.

As Viktor came back he continued to explain things again,

"Sword skills have to be activated using the right input motion which is pretty much where you hold your weapon and how you swing it, and if you look at your skills in your menu you'll see what skills you've got and how to activate them."

Before he even finished explaining all of this I had my menu open looking through the skills section but at the moment there were only two things written there:

Two Handed Axe – 0/1000

Horizontal Slash – 0/1000

I clicked again on horizontal slash and there was a brief explanation of the skil and how to use it:

Basic attack slicing from side to side. To activate hold away from body and swipe horizontally.

So as Viktor kept on talking about how each of the weapons had a proficiency rating and as it got higher so did damage, speed and chance of critical hits, also about how varied sword skills were and that there were thousands out there I charged off leaving Nenru listening attentively. As I approached one of the boars I held my axe as the menu had said and I felt a pulsing energy in the handle and felt it tingling in my hands, the axe turned to red as the boar began to charge and when I unleashed, slashing from left to right a bright red line appeared on the boar and its health dropped to just above zero. Smiling in confidence I went for the same thing again but was surprised that it didn't work, the confusion in my face didn't last for long as the boar hit me directly in the stomach causing me to fly back about 5 yards, but the weird thing was there was no pain, only a dull stinging where I was hit. As the boar began to charge again a green flash sped by me and dropped the remaining health to zero.

Nenru stood above me swiping away the screen which popped up to congratulate him, he shook his head,

"Maybe if you listened to everything then you wouldn't be looking like an idiot now would you?"

He offered out his hand to help me up as I winced comically,

"You really know how to pull punched when it comes to this kind of thing don't you?"

It was true though as Nenru was always this blunt, blunt like a brick to the back of the head more like it. Even still as I took the hand up he would smile before stating almost psychically,

"Before you ask, attack cool down," we both then stood chuckling at this apparent connection of the minds going on before I nodded showing I understood, then the hunger hit me as my stomach growled loudly and could tell the same was happening with Nenru, it was time to log off to get some much needed food for the gallant adventurer so I called over to Viktor who had seen the whole thing happen and had collapsed on the floor laughing. It took a few more shouts before he got up still chuckling.

"Look Viktor thanks for that, it been good help but for now we're off to get some food. It would be cool to do this again though."

He was still smiling as he opened up his menu swiping through the screen until with a bing a message came up on my HUD

Friend request from Viktor

Accept?

It didn't take long for the same t appear on Nenru's screen, we both laughed and pressed the blue circle confirming this and with another promise we would be back on in an hour or so we both pulled up the menu to log out. There was one problem with that though.

It wasn't there!

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Soooooo what did you all think of that. Rubbish? *Hangs head in shame and goes of crying*. But seriously what did you guys think, if you could review it would be great thanks. The constructive kind, not the kind where I cry myself to sleep at night. Even still, the next chapter will be up real soon so just hang in there guys!**

**PEACE!**


	2. What Do You Mean We're Stuck?

**A/N: Hey there guys, just me back with the second chapter I promised you and just a day in between. God I'm good! Don't forget to review, haven't had any yet and would like to get your opinions on all this. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Confusion. This was the only thing I felt at the moment, but even though I couldn't see a 'Log Out' button I pressed at the square where it should have been. After a few attempts I looked up at Nenru,<p>

"Um Nenru are we missing something here?"

But by the look on my friends face I could tell he found the exact same thing that I did.

"Whats wrong? Don't you two newbies know how to log out?" Joked Viktor still smiling as he looked between the two of us, he started to become more concerned by the looks on our faces,

"Jesus, the log out button is right…" His sentence trailed off as he too found an empty box where it should have been. It took a minute or so for me to tear myself away from the empty space and, from looking at both Nenru and Viktor they were struggling with the exact same thing I was.

"Hey Viktor did this ever happen during the Beta, because this seems to be a pretty big bug if you ask me,"

I tried to bring both of the others out of their own world, which worked to some degree as Viktor looked up at me shaking his head,

"No, this is the first time I've seen it, and even if it did happen in the Beta the game would have been pulled down, like you said it's a pretty big bug."

I turned back to Nenru who was still lost in that blank box,

"Come on Nenru snap out of it, the Game Masters will have this sorted in no time flat!" I tried to perk myself up regardless of this mystery to try and get any kind of reaction from him, but instead he turned slowly away from him menu, anger apparent on his face even though he was most likely trying to control himself.

"We're stuck in here and you want me to snap out of it? Well that's not going to happen because unlike you two I've already tried call the God dam Game Master but nothing, so for the moment I won't snap out of it!"

Viktor looked shocked at this reaction even though it didn't really shock me at all so he spoke up again,

"CaleM is right, this will all be sorted out in no time flat, there's no need to get angry about it, besides I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this."

No sooner than the words were out of his mouth my field of vision went blindingly white and the next thing I knew all three of us were standing in the main plaza in the Town of Beginnings. It was strange and gave me a bad feeling about what was happening, as I look around more and more people were appearing in flashes of white light. Yet Viktor didn't share this sense of foreboding as he relaxed slightly,

"See, everything will be fine, there'll just be some system announcement and then a mass logout, you'll see."

Me and Nenru looked at each other with neither of us really believing that but all we could do was wait as the crowd started to grow massively with more people asking questions about the disappearance of the 'Log Out' button and some complaining about their inability to Log Out and now being in trouble for one reason or another. All this carried on until it started to annoy me, I mean what was the point in all the continuous questions as no one else here knew, but only a few moments after it had started a few people spread around the crowd started pointing up into the sky.

There was a hexagonal box floating in the sky, bright red and in was written 'Warning', this didn't seem so bad to me, I mean the Game Master had to get his point across somehow. Then again when this flashing sign began to multiply enough that it covered the entire sky in a perfect dome that was when my gut started to feel bad again and not from a lack of food. As everyone was looking up at this happening I felt a hand on my shoulder,

"Be prepared for something to go wrong here CaleM," Just from this I could tell that this was a warning to both me and Viktor regardless of his lack of trepidation of the current situation. I just gave a curt nod in response waiting for something to happen and sure enough a red liquid oozed from between the cracks of the original 'Warning' sign and began to pool still hovering in mid-air, and as this carried on a figure started to form from all this slime that had fallen, in the end a hooded figure, easily one hundred feet tall was standing before the players who had been gathered.

Almost at once people began shouting the same questions at this ominous figure:

"Where is the Log Out button?"

"When can we Log Out?"

These were repeated until the figure raised a handless arm to silence everyone as a booming voice emanated from under the hood.

"Welcome players, my name is Kayaba Akihiko." At the mention of his name people started talking amongst themselves in disbelief that it could really be the legendary, sole creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear itself, even still as the hubbub died down Kayaba kept on speaking.

"Some of you may have noticed the absence of a Log Out button…"

Viktor was smiling to himself waiting to be proved right, then Kayba continued,

"This is not a game malfunction. I repeat this is not a game malfunction, but an original feature of Sword Art Online."

There was a moment of silence as people took the impact of his last words, then a murmur began to spread through the crowd rising to a shout of anger, confusion and fear. While Nenru seemed to have been waiting for something like this to happen it hit me like a truck, forcing me into a state of shock, all I could do now was keep staring at the hooded figure that was Kayaba, nothing else registered not even the presence of the two I teleported here with or the question and insults being thrown in the direction of Akihiko.

However, still he continued piling misery on top of us,

"You cannot log out of this game on your own. No one on the outside will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful burst of Microwave radiation, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

'Death? Death because of a game. This can't be happening, games are supposed to be fun, not life or death.' These were just some of the thoughts swirling around my now shell shocked brain. Yet Kayaba carried on as if giving a lecture,

"Unfortunately, the friends and family members of several players have ignored this warning and attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, 213 players have permanently retired in both Aincrad and the real world."

At the mention of the death of players, the deaths of real people, the mass of people below all fell into silence in unison with the only sounds being made were from Kayaba speaking and from some players crying. With Kayaba's next sentence screens popped up all around him showing the way this was breaking in the outside world.

"The media is reporting this as we speak so you can now assume the danger of this happening has been greatly reduced. However, you should now note that there will be no more respwans." My eyes were too focused on one of the screens to react to this, or properly absorb what had been said properly. My mother was reporting on this breaking news, her face streaked with tears and eyes still very much red with the news that her only son had been trapped in the game.

"No respwans? We have one life? How…how?" Viktor's voice trailed off into nothingness almost as soon as he had spoken.

Reinforcing his earlier point Kayaba continued,

"Once your HP reaches zero your avatar will be permanently erased, at the same time the NerveGear will destroy your brain. You need only fulfil one condition to log out, clear the game."

With this I heard Viktor and Nenru laugh weakly, "one life to clear 100 levels Well that won't happen." Viktor piped up yet again and it seemed he had regained some of his composure with the way he was talking even though I still hadn't turned my head to look at him. I was still in shock after the news that had been brought down upon us and also from seeing the last image of my mother on the news. Kayaba then launched into how to complete the game, but I already knew all this, after all I spent months following the production of the game.

"Beat all 100 floor bosses, bloody impossible." I was muttering under my breath now, not daring to raise my voice much higher than that as I didn't know what was going to happen next. My mind continued to race ignoring anything else said until people started to glow bright white for the second time today. Confused I looked around to the two people I would have to rely on and gasped as where Viktor stood was now someone different.

While this guy was the same height as me there was an extra weight on him, ont that he looked fat just he didn't look skinny, the long blond hair had been replaced with a black buzz cut but the green eyes stayed. It took me a few moments to realise that this must be what Viktor looked like normally. Then I saw the same white light all round me for the second time as I felt my hair reverting back to its real self which actually made me feel slightly better seeing how much other people had changed.

Guys turning back to girls, girls turning back to guys, the tall and the handsome turning back into pockmarked little nerds that had probably never seen sunlight, it was good to know that I was one of the few who took pride in their appearance.

"Looks like Kayaba got tired of waiting for you to use your 'present'," Nenru again managed a weak little chuckle and put the last word in air quotes before he continued,

"It won't be the last time you see your family CaleM," It seemed that Nenru wasn't in the same boat as I was as all I could give him was a weak looking smile before yet again diving back into my own little world and I only registered a few people. Nenru and the real Viktor were talking between eachother and Kayaba had started up again, something about his reasons for doing this, his reasons didn't matter to me as all that mattered was that we were trapped and there was no way to complete this game without dying. It seemed that most other people were in the same state as me as I could hear precious few other voices around me, but this wasn't unexpected, people had just been handed a life sentence after all.

Even still after another minute or so I felt two sets of hands pulling me away and realised it must be Viktor and Nenru and it snapped me out of my reverie so I was able to hear Kayaba's last words before vanishing,

"Thus ends the official tutorial for Sword Art Online. I wish you all the best of luck."

With that he disintergrated into thousands of tiny red polygons like what happens when a monster gets destroyed. The three of us were already trying to get away from the plaza when an angry buzz started, rising into a frantic shout. People were angry, confused, scared, desperate and probably many other things so it was for the best that I was being dragged away from that ugly ass riot waiting to happen.

By the time the others let go of me we were coming up to the outskirts of town, the next thing I saw was Nenru looking directly at me,

"Come on CaleM, get a grip we need to get out of here if we want to survive and this isn't the time for a meltdown!"

His face was full of concern and I had to pull myself out of my own thoughts just to answer him,

"What are we going to do Nenru? Clear this whole game with one life? It's impossible, it can't be done, we goners, we're…"

My voice tailed off as the true realisation of this death game sank in and I felt myself start to shake uncontrollably out of fear, there was no way we could survive this, this game was the end of the line. At that point a worried looking Viktor appeared over the shoulder of Nenru at the same time that I got a swift back hand slap across the face, while it didn't hurt it snapped me out of my cycle of depression,

"Jesus Christ CaleM get a hold of yourself, if we're going to survive we need to get stronger and that means you need to STOP FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF!"

These sage words woke me up a little inside, not enough that I came anywhere close to accepting the situation that had just happened but enough to realise that I needed to at least try to survive and getting stronger was the best way to do that, not sitting around moping and feeling the whole world was against me and from the looks of the others they were in the same boat as me. I had to wait a moment for my body to stop shaking after that little panic attack, but by the time that it had I looked at these two saviours in the eye because without them I would have gone off the deep end and done something drastic, these two that I would rely most in this crazy world and passing a hand over my face I began to get serious.

"Alright then what's the plan and where are we headed first as it probably a bad idea to stay around here, will get picked clean am I right?"

Nenru went to speak but was interrupted by Viktor clearing his throat and trying to sound all important,

"Well that's where I come in seeing as you two don't have a clue and me being a Beat Tester and all. Seriously though we can move onto the next town for now, there are some easy quests for high Exp there and when we've finished there, there's a great training place I know and I don't think that anyone else goes there. That's the next week or so planned, just grind until there's nothing left at the minute."

He finished outlining the plan to both of us and I couldn't help but smile slightly at this, I mean we had a plan which seemed to be a pretty good one to start us off. My last question was simple,

"When do we set out? Tomorrow?"

"Right now!" the response was in unison before Nenru carried on, "Come on CaleM look around you, people are starting now and we don't want to be at a disadvantage."

"Nenru is right, we start now and the other Beta's can't get too far ahead of us, it's important we lead the pack rather than always playing catch up."

They both had a point, as I looked around I saw either small groups or single players darting out of town in different directions. One even headed, straight by us, a guy with black hair and dark eyes as well, as he passed running flat out Viktor's expression changed as he saw the guy's face and he began swearing to himself under his breath,

"Bloody solo player. Gets all the limelight. No one makes me look like a moron."

Me and Nenru looked at each other at this reaction before turning to Viktor with questioning looks, seeing this he would shake his head meaning he didn't want to talk about it. So after this ended I straightened myself properly and shook my hair out habitually, I placed my two hands on the shoulders of my oldest friend and my newest one,

"Alright let's go and show everyone what we're made of," trying to give a good rousing speech didn't work the way I wanted it to as the other two started to laugh,

"Says the one who was so scared he pretty much pissed himself," was the scathing retort I got from Nenru as we set out at a brisk pace out of the nearest gate, following the lead of Viktor. We were only walking for a couple of minutes when Viktor stopped muttering to himself about something or other before turning back to us and swiping open his menu, before long yet another request popped up on both our screens.

Viktor has sent a party invitation.

Accept?

This didn't register with me and the blank look of non-understanding showed as much,

"Jesus, do you not pay any attention at all CaleM?" Nenru rolled his eyes at the blank expression on my face before Viktor began to explain,

"Parties help share experience and also let you keep track of other members health and status, so they're pretty useful really."

"Maybe I should listen a bit more; I do seem to be pretty clueless about most of this." I responded a bit sheepishly, kind of embarrassed about my own ignorance.

"The chances of you ever listening are non-existent," muttered Nenru under his breath as he swiped his way through the menu before sending a friend request my way. As I accepted both of these requests I turned away from both of the others,

"you know you should be lucky I even accepted, I mean I'm going to be the one who carries this team anyway," I winced slightly as I felt a rock hit my back causing my HP to drop minimally and it was obviously thrown by Nenru in minor annoyance. Even still as the three of us set out on the road to the next town my face grew grim again as I wondered what would happen to the ten thousand players trapped in here, but more importantly what would happen to the three of us.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So there we go, another long chapter for you all, don't know if I will keep up the length and the space in between postings will be longer now as I don't have anything written down for the next chapter yet. Don't forget if you can review I will love you forever. Well maybe not forever but we can still be friends right? Anyway for now, PEACE!**


	3. One Small Step for Us

**A/N: Hey guys, it's me here with another chapter of Tales of the Brave. I hope you enjoy it. Oh and can I ask that you review if you read this please, it would make me feel a lot better if I knew what I could improve, then you would enjoy it more to. Thanks**

* * *

><p>Horunka town, that's what Viktor had called the next town that we were headed to, it wasn't too fair either according to our own Beta Tester,<p>

"It's about a two hour walk away, so not really that far, well compared to getting through the labyrinths on this game, those take the piss."

"With monsters trying to kill us every step of the way…Yeah sounds like a walk in the park." I replied scathingly. Even still we pushed forward and for the first few minutes of our little journey all was quiet, the only noise came from the wind blowing leaves across our path and with the sky still tinged a deep red and the sun approaching the horizon it was easy to forget the news that would make so many lose hope .

All that ended in the blink of an eye though as sex 'frenzy boars' charged us at once, this was the first time either me or Nenru had been in a proper fight in this game. Time to measure up, was the only thought that went through my mind at this point as I unslung my axe from my back and charged in with Viktor and Nenru. Automatically the three of us split off into groups with each of us taking on two at once, more difficult that I would have liked my first fight to be but I wasn't really in a position to be picky with this.

I slowed down slightly and began to activate my only sword skill and as the boars were charging at me in unison I was able to strike both of them at the same time causing the bright red contact line to appear on their hides but their HP only dropped into the yellow this time,

"What? Are these stronger of something as I'm not doing as much damage?" I was yelling above the sounds of three small battles,

"Yeah these are a bit stronger, level two actually so be careful." The response came from Viktor and his speech was more measured as he was almost toying with his two opponents, it must be child's play for him, enemies this basic must have gotten easy a while ago. This was in sharp contrast to me and Nenru who were struggling with our stronger opponents.

The two boars I was facing managed to take advantage of my distracted state as one managed to clip my left leg and sent me into a spin with my large axe flailing wildly and the other then managed to get in close and tackle me in my now exposed left side. This sent my flying back for the second time today but I still sprang back up straight away. With no pain receptors there was no reason to stay on the ground but still the embarrassment made me grit my teeth as the first charge yet again, but this time I was ready and swung down with my axe and it dug into the skull of the first for a split second as it burst apart into the data that it was created of.

I didn't have time to celebrate as I turned to see the other beginning its basic combination of attack and yet again I activated my skills and carved through the boar as it charged toward me, bursting into a million tiny shards. Instantly I dropped to the floor panting and my health just above the yellow zone, with my axe on my lap I looked up to find that I was the first to finish but Viktor wasn't trying really and as soon as he saw that I was done he coolly batted away one with his shield and plunged his sword through the back of one before pulling out and using the same motion to perform a backhand slice on the other, taking them both down simultaneously. As he finished he sheathed his sword and walked over to me, leaving Nenru to finish off the final monster.

"How did you find that then? Easy enough for you?" his questioning was sarcastic as I could see that he looked up toward where my health bar would have been if it wasn't for empty air, I glared at him before I noticed that buried underneath the congratulations signs there was a notification saying that I had levelled up, smiling I stood up and re-slung my axe,

"Yeah it'll be easier now, levelled up!" I said absently mindedly as my fingers went to work assigning the few skill point I had been given, mainly into strength but leaving one for speed as, after that last battle it was evident it was a bad idea to be as slow as I was.

"Two things," Nenru began as he approached, "One, you move like a rock and two party exp for the win!" He exclaimed meaning he had just levelled up as well, Viktor chuckled as we began making a move, the conversation between us slipped back into the features of Sword Art Online as Viktor piped up with a running commentary again of anything that might be useful, as he moved into the multitude of skills that were available I was amazed,

"I knew about some of them like cooking and blacksmithing you know the basic ones, but listening and detection it just shows how immersive this place is," with one of my hands motioning to the scenery around us. Viktor was surprised by what I was saying,

"Can you really say that after all that's happened today?" When this topic was brought up Nenru, who had been hanging back slightly, moved up to listen to what we were saying,

"Well it's sinking in, what happened is huge and its nuts to think that something like this could happen. But just look at the game on its own and don't think about that we're trapped here. You've got to admit it's kind of impressive." Even I was shocked by my reaction, especially after my previous reaction after Kayaba delivered the news that we were trapped and involved in some sick, twisted pleasure of his.

We all carried on in some form of silence as our minds went back to what happened only a short time. I knew it was dangerous to let this situation over-ride the need for survival but it seemed to be pretty hopeless at the minute, but I would keep fighting to the end, just to get out of here as one massive up yours to Kayaba.

It wasn't long before we ran into another large group of boars and a single wolf, needless to say that Viktor went straight for the wolf leaving me and Nenru to deal with a two on one situation with boars again. This time it went more smoothly for us as we were able to see how basic their attack pattern was and as both of us were finishing Viktor came to look in on how we were doing, but all he saw was the last of them getting decapitated by my axe as I managed to side step its attack and brought the blade of my axe down and through it neck for a critical hit. All of us began to laugh now, this didn't seem so bad for a while, it just seemed like a game, with easy basic enemies and experience, this just didn't seem like something where our lives were in danger. Jokes were being thrown around between all three of us as we ambled toward the next town, the mood between us was relaxed and we soon put anything else from our minds.

The process of killing monsters continued but our mood for the time being didn't change, with Viktor taking the strongest and leaving me and Nenru to grind on the others that were left the levelling process was going well and by the time that the moon had risen the two of us were level 5 and Viktor was level 9, but he had a head start on either of us so that was kind of expected. But by the time we had noticed that the moon had risen and it was now gone twilight the mood suddenly changed with Viktor beginning to curse violently before turning to explain,

"Look we need to pick up the pace because we still have about 30 minutes to Horunka Town, we don't want to be out here now."

"So what if we get there late then we just rest longer it's that simple," came the measured response from Nenru as he kept the same pace as we had for the past hour.

"You don't understand, probably because you're new to this but Wolves and those kind of creatures get power boosts at night, we don't want to be here when that kicks in." After this little problem had been explained to us then we began to run in the direction of town not waiting to find out what these pumped up monsters would be like.

Yet apparently Kayaba had different plans as we ran into two of them, yellow eyes gleaming in the darkness, they also seemed to have grown slightly,

"Oh joy, what a pleasant surprise," sarcasm dripping off every word that I said,

"Time and a place CaleM, time and a place." Muttered Viktor under his breath as all three of us charged in, the feeling between us had now changed, the tension and trepidation was now apparent, gone was the relaxation and the fun of playing a 'game', the death game was back now. The wolves let out a bloodcurdling howl as they jumped in as me and Nenru ganged up on one of them. These wolves were much more of a challenge though and not just because of the increase in their level, their attack patterns were erratic now as the 'wolf mark two' jumped between me and Nenru snapping it jaws and swiping at us trying to catch either one of us off guard.

In a split second it turned its attention away from Nenru and jumped toward me suddenly becoming much more aggressive as it managed to bit down around my left leg, seeing my health drop down from the green and slowly into the yellow made my cry out with fear, after all the points I put into HP and strength it seemed like it meant nothing, even still that didn't stop from levelling the side of it with the pole of my axe which sent it flying back as Nenru then activated his skill and ran through the still airborne body.

I got back to my feet as we both looked at each other and smiled by the use of teamwork, but the wolf somehow got back up with its health just above the red zone. This time though it was us on the offensive with Nenru baiting it into coming into range while I raised my axe and felt the tingle of power which meant that a sword skill had become active:

_Execute_

As I brought the axe down the blade didn't just bite into the virtual skin it cut the head clean off with the power behind the blade. As this happened Nenru just looked at me in disbelief,

"Well that could be useful, especially if you want a job as a headsman," Nenru was joking even though both of us had taken quite serious damage during this; it was good to know that I had a new skill though. With that I pulled up my menu to look at the description:

Execute

100% chance of decapitation but requires critical hit to land.

"Seems like we got kind of lucky there Nenru it looks like it misses easily," I felt relief sweep through my body at this, if that didn't work then it could have been game over and life over for me. I needed to be careful with that skill but it did seem pretty cool.

"Was that a new skill? What was it called, seems pretty cool if you ask me. Wait how did you get one so soon?"

Viktor was bombarding me with questions about the skill so I told him all I could, but couldn't answer how I got it so soon, maybe it had something to do with my high strength, it was about the only thing I could think of so I explained as much. Viktor sighed but smiled at me and placed his hand on my shoulder,

"Well it's good to get another attack, I can't wait for mine. But if that's what you think caused it you might want to start looking at your other stats as well. No point in having all that strength if you can't take a hit, not much of a tank then are you?"

He was right, I had focused pretty much everything I had into strength at the moment, I needed to spread the points I got more evenly and then things wouldn't get as desperate as they had been getting with me but I just nodded at him in thanks for the advice before we carried on.

The rest of our journey went by without any more incidents like that and it was a good thing too, none of us seemed to be in the fighting mood anymore tonight. That last skirmish seemed to bring home how real all this was, that we couldn't just respawn in the first town anymore. After a few more minutes we started to see some lights up ahead, the first signs that Horunka town was so close, from the look of the lights it seemed to be a big place, not the sprawling metropolis that was the Town of Beginnings but still big enough to hold most of the players on this level.

Just before we made it inside the gates we were stopped by a guard who was clearly an NPC, he had his pike raised and his armour shined in the moonlight,

"Halt who goes there?"

"We are adventurers seeking a bed to sleep in," Viktor replied shortly, it seemed to be a pre-programmed answer as the guard then lowered his pike a let out a short breath,

"You can never be too careful these days what with all the trouble in town. You seem to be pretty strong, do you mind checking it out for us?"

At this response Viktor's eyes raised as a new quest popped up on all of our screens called,

_'Attack of the Killer Plants'_

"This is new, I've never seen this quest before," Viktor turned to the two of us almost expecting our opinion on it and both of us obliged,

"Let's just get some rest and go off to train, we can deal with it when we're stronger.

"CaleM is right both of us were kind of lucky against those wolves, I don't want to die helping feed your curiosity about this."

Viktor smiled at the responses, especially at Nenru's as it seemed like he had the same thoughts as well and he just nodded in response. We then walked into the city and before long we were in one of the cheaper Inns around as we only had the Col that we earned from killing all the monsters we encountered on the way here as all the shops were closed so we couldn't sell any of the random items they dropped.

The common room of the Inn was pretty basic with a fireplace built into one of the walls and a low roof, wooden tables and chair were packed into the space to allow as many people sit and drink as possible, the NPC innkeeper was a short a friendly old man with the basic responses programmed into him as we bought our rooms for the night and went upstairs to go straight to sleep. Just before we went into separate rooms I turned to the others,

"Let's have a lie in and we get out of here by 10, God knows after all that I need it," after we all agreed to this I went into my room, it was a comfortable to room, not big and certainly nothing special but it had a bed and that was all that mattered at the moment. There was also a small table in the left corner with a wash basin on it and a window looking onto the street outside right next to it.

I just dropped onto the bed without taking anything off for a moment, putting both hands over my face I just laid there, there were no tears or anything of the like there, nothing to be cried over. Just the stark realisation of what we all had to do, there was no time to be depressed over this, we just had to get up and carry on, carry on fighting and hopefully get out of here.

For a while I just laid there, not moving not taking my hands away from my face, I was in my own little world, one where none of this had happened, some time later a wolf howled in the distance and it brought me back to this reality, there was a part of me that was sad, sad because of all the times in the real world with my friends and family that I would miss, but there was still the people here. Viktor and Nenru were my new family and friends wouldn't be hard to find in this place, it was tacky to think of it like that but it made me feel better anyway.

I stood once more before going into my menu and taking off all the armour and clothes I had on throughout this hell of a day before I was just left wearing the pair of boxers that were automatically equipped when I started designing this avatar. I went over to the little basin that was full of water and splashed water over my face taking off all the grime that would so obviously be there and went back to my bed for the night, getting under the thin sheet and chucking the blanket on the floor I fell into a fitful sleep, dreaming of the outside world and all that must be going on out there.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So what did you think guys, I'll try to keep the posts at a good rate, but I'm going back to University soon so I don't know how frequent they will be, I'll try to keep it at one a week. Oh and one final reminder to review please, it would be greatly appreciated. **

**PEACE!**


	4. Attack of the Killer Plants

**A/N: Hey guys, its me again back with another chapter for Tales of the Brave. Sorry it took a while for me to post it, university has started again and things are pretty busy at the moment, but by next week things will have calmed down so it will be back to normal. Anyway I hope you enjoy it and please don't forget to review.**

* * *

><p>It had been a couple of days now since Kayaba revealed the true nature of Sword Art Online and in that time there had been so many deaths, so many suicides, so many people who thought that if you died then you would just wake up in the real world again. We hadn't even been in the middle of the worst of it as we headed out so early, we just got scraps of information from the new players slowly filtering into Horunka Town, and when I say slowly I mean about one hundred players are here with most of them still shell-shocked and hiding in the Town of Beginnings, either way that didn't bother me so much it just meant that they're too weak to help clear the levels that are ahead.<p>

Me, Nenru and Viktor have been training solidly for these past days now anyway, gaining levels has been slow but definitely worth it as we've just been going round the town and doing all the smaller quests which means we don't have to go out and risk our necks at the moment, less experience but safer for now at least. We've stayed at the same inn for the two nights that had passed since we first arrived and found that the NPC innkeeper was more helpful than we thought, he gave us tips on new quests and told us where good prices for equipment were around town, that was if you knew the right phrases to get him to tell you.

Right now Viktor is level eleven and getting annoyed with how long it's taking to level up now, it took him a full day to get from ten to eleven, but Nenru and I aren't at that annoying period yet as we've just turned level ten. My skill points have been going into strength and HP mainly but some have gone into endurance, it's only just come to my attention that it helps lessen the damage that you take so I'm levelling it more frequently now, so here's hoping that incident with the wolves won't happen again.

The last few hours have made it apparent now that the last quest in this town available is the quest we got at the start, the quest called 'Attack of the Killer Plants', I mean it looks like we've exhausted all the others around town, either that or we just can't find them and it feels like we've spoken to every NPC around this place,

"Well looks like we've got to get it started then," Was the final verdict from Nenru who, during this time had come to be the sensible one of our little group as he started to lead the way down the street before the two of us managed to catch up.

"Stop acting like the leader again Nenru, remember we decided to not go down this road, it won't end well," Me and Viktor scolded him in unison, it was true though as we sat down the second night we were here and after a night full of arguments and threats we came to the conclusion that none of us could lead on our own so we should keep everything equal. While Nenru might have the most level head, Viktor was the best fighter and I was the best trying to get any information out of new players that came around, the other two just didn't seem to get it, Viktor said stupid things constantly and Nenru just lost his patience with the player halfway through and ended up calling them a moron or something less sanitary.

As we approached the first guard on the main gate the little quest marker appeared again as it was automatically made our active quest due to it being in close proximity, we went to talk to the guard who gave us this new addition to the beta,

"Oh thank you so much for the help, this town really needs it. You see there have been attacks in the walls, not by people but by plants. I don't really know much about it but you can go talk to the cleric whose healing all the injured up at the town hall, that place is about the only safe place around here these days."

As we walked off me and Nenru turned to Viktor with quizzical looks,

"Plants killing people? I didn't know that could happen on here and what's more I thought you couldn't get hurt in city walls!" Nenru seemed shocked by this but Viktor just laughed,

"You thought it was only going to be monsters like Boars and Wolves that could kill us? No, there's monsters out there called Nepents which look like plants, and him saying there's injured is probably just for the quest, we won't be in any danger in these walls, well I hope so anyway."

We all fell silent at once almost in preparation for what might come over the next couple of minutes, that was until we reached the town hall and as we entered we were met by a haggard looking man who was so bent he looked tiny, as he approached us he began,

"Oh thank God, are you here to help with the plant problem, the guards told me they would try to send someone. The plants are coming out of the forest. Kill them all and make the pay for what they've done!"

It was shocking to see the look of hatred on the NPC's face as he was talking, the reaction was almost human. But still we had our mission and a marker appeared on our maps directing us where to go but just before we headed out we stopped by one of the item stores and stocked up on health crystals, 'just in case something goes wrong' as Viktor put it and really it was best to think like that especially now there were no respawns.

We left the town quite soon after all the stocking up was done and soon we were in the forest moving deeper and deeper in, the sun was slowly becoming blotted out and I began to stumble on the tree roots that were protruding from the ground,

"Jesus Christ, how much longer till we get to the marker?" I asked as I righted myself again after nearly tripping over yet another tree root.

"Don't worry bigfoot we'll be there real soon," Viktor's jokes were still bad but it always made me and Nenru smile as it lightened the mood which was always in danger of slipping into depression. It was only a few more minutes until the woods suddenly disappeared on all sides and led to a clearing which stretched out for about half a kilometre square and in the middle was a giant group of Nepents which had strangely gathered in a mob facing inwards.

It wasn't until all of us heard a high pitched screech and a shatter of glass which signalled a player dying.

"We've got to help; we can't just let that player die!" I was eager to help and wasn't going to stand around waiting for permission to go.

"Yeah just wait a second and…" Nenru's words of sense didn't reach me, I'd already started running unslinging my axe with Viktor right behind me and Nenru now shouting about how much of a moron I was but I didn't care now, I just couldn't let someone die so soon as this, especially when they were trying to do something and not just waste away.

As we reached the mob I jumped and brought my axe down on one of the Nepents,

_Execute_

The Nepent I struck with my attack didn't even see the attack coming and shattered in a single stroke, probably a critical hit, as the first nepent died a large portion of the mob turned their attention from the player who was blocked from view to the three of us. As the group of 9 nepents gathered Nenru just shot me a glare of pure hatred which I kind of understood, I mean I did kind of screw up but with our levels being so high for only a few days in there shouldn't really be any major chance of us dying.

"Help, I'm in the red. Please just help!" A girls voice came through the mob of monsters and my ears perked up, swinging wildly at the nearest enemy to me activating my other sword skill and staggering another with a boot to the mid-section, this gave me enough of a chance to dive through the hoard of enemies still crowding around this girl with Nenru and Viktor now swearing at me. As I burst through the crowd I rolled through and stood up with health crystal in hand and almost threw it at the girl,

"Here use this, you're lucky we got here when we did," I scolded the girl still not looking up as I turned around and faced the nepents and my stomach turned slightly as the nepents I left behind had joined into the thronging crowd, it wasn't a good situation to be found in but before I could even move a small girl, no taller than five foot five and brunette jumped onto the closest one and began stabbing at its neck with a long dagger, the creature howled in pain as its health rapidly drained away and just before it disappeared she jumped onto the next while I just stood there dumbstruck that she was able to fight so well. That was until I realised that her health was consistently decreasing so with a yell I jumped in kicking out at one enemy before swinging in a long diagonal arc and jamming the pole of my axe into the neck of the creature which dropped its health to zero.

This carried on with the acrobatic girl jumping from nepent to nepent with me just dishing out damage to them from the ground, during this I could tell how much that my levelling had helped as the damage I was taking was vastly reduced and I was able to kill one of the nepents in a quick manner and after about 15 minutes of grunts, shouts and curses the mob was cleared. As the last nepent had disappeared into a shower of glowing polygons I collapsed on the ground with my axe resting on my lap, breathing heavily I looked up at the three people who were round me and were just as tired,

"You…IDIOT!" I winced as Nenru started his rant, "Do you have any idea how many me and Viktor had to deal with, SIX! Six between the two of us, this isn't the boars that we fought on the way here. I've known you for a long time now and you've never been this god damn stupid!"

He paused for breath but before he was even allowed to carry on the girl who we came to save sidled up beside me piped up for the first time,

"Erm, sorry to butt in but he saved my life so why are you shouting at him so much, it's what you wanted to do as well isn't it?" Her voice trembled as she was trying to keep her emotions in check and not let it all out on three strangers who had just rescued her.

Nenru's eyes bulged and he looked like he was going to erupt into a violent rant at her as well but he then noticed Viktor sanding back observing what was going on and chuckling quietly to himself,

"Question Viktor, what's so funny?" Nenru had gone quiet all of a sudden which was a sign of bad things to come,

"Oh come on now Nenru things might not have gone perfectly but we got what we wanted to done, there's no harm in that." Nenru just buried his face in his hands before looking back up to the three of us before realising he was the only one who was so angry about all of this,

"You really don't see it do you? Of course it's bad, if you lot just keep running head first into things like this without thinking of what might happen we'll die in no time flat. While I might not be the man with the plan I sure as hell am not going to die because of a split second decision that went south!"

His voice got louder as his explanation went on and by the end he as back to shouting and his original rant again, he went on for a while about all manner of things, most of which he repeated as he started to go round in circles. I hadn't really been listening as I probably heard this in the real world on a monthly basis for the past 5 years. Instead I was focused on the girl who was now sitting by me but was looking at the ground in between her crossed legs, like I noticed before she had brown hair hanging loosely just below her shoulders and was about five foot five, she had hazel eyes she didn't look like your average Japanese girl but I'd been wrong about this kind of thing many times before. After a time she looked up and saw me staring at her and she blushed which snapped me out of my trance and I finally spoke up,

"Look Nenru while it's been lovely hearing about how much of an idiot we all are I think it's best if you just quiet down a bit now before you say something that will piss one of us off. Surprisingly we didn't exactly have time to come up with a plan otherwise she would have died," I motioned in her direction before carrying on, "If this was just the quest in itself then I would have stopped to listen, you know as there was no time limit but this time it was different, get over it."

I was blunt with him but it was at this point of his anger cycle where nothing else would work, after I finished my little speech he went quiet for a second obviously processing what I said before saying just one thing with no anger in his voice at all,

"Alright I can understand wanting to save her, but what happens if one of us died because of it? I'm not like you CaleM and I don't want to risk my neck like that." And with that he disappeared off into the trees with Viktor trailing in his wake, just before Viktor disappeared off into the trees he turned around and called out that he would talk to Nenru and bring him back.

Minutes went by in silence as me and this girl just sat right next to each other before she broke the silence herself,

"I haven't said it yet but thank you for saving me. We, I mean I should never have come out here." She hung her head in sadness again and fell back into silence obviously depressed about the other player that had died,

"You don't need to thank me; I wouldn't have let you die, why were you out here anyway? Didn't you think it might be too dangerous, I mean that was a big group of Nepents after all?"

She winced at the question before looking up at me, tears brimming in her eyes, her voice cracked as she answered,

"We didn't know it would be like this, I came out here with another player, a girl called Katrina, she said it would be easy, kill a couple of monsters and get good experience. But then this giant mob appeared out of nowhere while we were having a rest and then…"

She could even finish her sentence properly as she began to cry and just bury her face in her hands before she looked up with red eyes,

"She died because she gave me her last health crystal, it's completely my fault." With that she let out a loud wail and her head went back into her hands. I realised with a pang of guilt that if the Nepents appeared out of nowhere then it was partly my fault as well as the quest probably made them appear before we got there. I put an arm around her shoulder as she continued to cry loudly.

"It's not your fault; you couldn't have known that so many of them would appear. Don't blame yourself, I don't' want all my efforts to save you be wasted now would I?" I smiled at her and she looked up at me as she giggled herself before wiping her eyes with the back of her hand,

"I'm Miyu by the way, I probably should have said sooner."

I smiled back at her, "Its fine, you've had other things on your mind. The name is CaleM."

After this little exchange we just fell silent again, she just needed time to grieve about her friend dying and I was more than happy to give her that time. An hour or so passed in silence before she spoke up again,

"CaleM I Know this might seem a bit much but I don't really know what to do next, my friend made all the big decisions like that. What I'm trying to say is do you mind if I tag along with you and your friends for a while?"

* * *

><p><strong>Nenru POV<strong>

I just needed some time to myself for a while, you know just to get myself back under control. It wasn't that I couldn't understand where CaleM was coming from but I want to survive as well, not that I don't want to help out others, I just don't want to risk my life at the same time.

"Oi Nenru hold on a second, just wait up!" Viktor was running slightly to catch up but I just kept walking, I didn't really want to talk about this to anyone yet Viktor came along anyway, people just didn't get these things, I don't know why.

"Look Viktor I just want a bit of time to myself at the moment, it's nothing personal," I gave false smile to make it seem like things were fine but it didn't really work as Viktor just shook his head while still smiling,

"You're obviously still annoyed at CaleM charging in and leaving us and I can understand why but everything worked out in the end , we saved the Damsel in Distress as well!" He pulled off a swooning pose as he said and threw me a sidelong grin,

"Actually you're wrong about that bit, he does this kind of thing all the time but this is the first time where he's had a good reason for it. It's that he can risk his neck to save strangers. He doesn't think about his own health, he's a complete moron!"

I hit the one of the trees I frustration and a sign indicating that it was immortal object came up, when I looked back at Viktor he wasn't smiling this time, it was probably the first time I had seen him being concerned since the first day,

"It takes all kinds to make a place like this. Not all of us can completely ignore the other players round here now. I guess it comes back to what you would do in real life, if you would try to save a life or just walk on by. You can't be annoyed by it; you've just got to accept things like that. I'm not going to lose my soul trying to get out of this place or what's the point?"

What he said made sense, well kind of anyway. I never really cared about saving the day, just making sure that I saved my own skin. Like hell would I ever do something like this but maybe it was time to stop criticising others for doing it.

"Heh, maybe you're right. It does take all kinds and if CaleM wants to play the hero who am I to stop him?" As I said this Viktor's smile crept back onto his face,

"That's the spirit, kind of. Just let him get on with it and don't get on his back every time, now shall we get back, we've been gone a while." I nodded in agreement and we both walked back toward the clearing both laughing and joking about nothing in particular.

* * *

><p><strong>CaleM POV<strong>

When she asked the question I just sat there in silence looking at thin air, I wasn't really sure what to say to her. I mean I didn't really want to leave her on her own but at the same time the three of us already were doing well and I didn't want to risk that,

"Erm, I really don't know. I'm not the leader of our group, I mean none of us are so the others will have to agree." She looked downcast like she had just been rejected,

"Oh that's alright, I didn't think you would say yes anyway,"

"Woah wait hang on, I didn't say I wouldn't try but I just don't want to get your hopes up."

She grinned widely and threw herself at me hugging me really bloody tightly, just as I thought I felt myself turning blue I pushed her away gasping for air,

"The best way to tag along isn't to kill one of us!" I laughed along with her joking around and she blushed and turned away while apologising and when I looked back up from her I saw Nenru and Viktor walking back toward us and saw Viktor slowly wink at me and Nenru just smiled slightly and shook his head.

"Just wait here, I'll be back in a second with your answer," I muttered to her as I got up and sauntered over to the two of them,

"I was talking to the new girl…"

"Oh we could see that CaleM," Viktor laughed as he winked again

"Not like that you pervert. I mean we were talking and she asked. Well she asked if she could tag along for a while." I looked away from the two of them for a second before continuing, "Look I know what you two are going to say, that it's just the three of us, we don't know if she'll get us in anymore trouble and everything like that and I understand. But I've see her fight and she's surprisingly good, we can just test her out, you know for a week or something and if all of us don't get along with her or she gets us in trouble then we can go separate ways."

I finished my explanation with my voice getting quicker and quicker and when I noticed this I blushed slightly, making myself look a fool. I waited for the rant that would resume but instead all I got was Nenru walking past me with a stern look on his face as he marched up to her.

"Name? What level? Any extra skills?" He asked all these questions like he was conducting an interview for a new position which made me laugh openly,

"My name's Miyu, I've got alright Blacksmithing and Cooking as well. My level…well I'm level nine but I'm nearly level ten," She mumbled out not making much eye contact with Nenru, instead she was looking about two inches below his neck. When she finished with her answers he turned around completely without emotion as he walked back to me and Viktor leaving Miyu looking downtrodden. As he reached us again he shook his head,

"I can't believe I'm doing this," as he turned around with a wide grin on his face an spread his arms wide open,

"Welcome to our own little slice of madness!" He shouted, causing me and Viktor to jump nearly as much as Miyu yet a split second afterwards she sprinted toward us and flung herself on all of us at once giggling insanely which caused us to collapse and fall into a tangle of bodies in a roar of laughter, after a moment or two of squirming around Viktor's head poked out just under Miyu's armpit,

"Hey, I didn't get to decide on this,"

"Shut it Viktor, we all know you would have agreed you're about as soft as butter." My response was muted as the pit of Nenru' back was pressed against my face. After another minute or so of untangling our mass of bodies we all stood still chuckling before I slapped myself on the head comically,

"Oh and I forgot, this is Nenru and Viktor," I explained to Miyu and I motioned to them both in order and she giggled very girlishly,

"I Miyu, nice to meet you," She proceeded to turn away and walk away, confused I shouted after her

"Miyu, where are you going?"

"Back to town silly, where else would I be going?"

"Oh well it's good to go back and all, but you're going the wrong way." With this Nenru howled with laughter and collapsed on the ground as she blushed again and after we waited for Nenru to calm down again we all moved off back to town with a new member of our little party.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So what did you all think? Good or what? No seriously what. Don't be scared to review or even just send me a message about it. I would really appreciate some reviews by the way. Anyway until next time...**

**PEACE!**


	5. The Cave

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since my last chapter but Uni has started in full force again but I will try to make this a weekly thing. On happier news, REVIEWS! Thanks for the support and the positive comments. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Just over a week passed since we saved Miyu from the mob of Nepents and it was clear that she needed time to get over witnessing her friend dying, she seemed to spend a lot of time by herself when we weren't out training or discussing what to do next, but still when we were all together in town things were great. True we heard all the rumours about different players dying in all different ways but this didn't affect me, Nenru and Viktor at the moment although it seemed like it started to creep up on Miyu as she started to complain we should be doing more for these players,<p>

"We're doing what we can for these players. Risking our lives for people who already have a death wish isn't fair on us. If we can get through this game though, that is a way to help out. We keep going and then hopefully more people will catch up to us."

Viktor explained this to her for about the fifth time and what he said was right, helping people who didn't want to live didn't come high on my priorities and hopefully Miyu would come round to this way of thinking in time. Things were generally going well in our little group though, with all our levels progressing at a rate which was keeping us as the strongest people around even though it was still only the first floor and there were a lot of people who had only just started out on their quest for power after trapping themselves in the town of beginnings. It was now two weeks in and all of us were at differing stages of level 14, but there was one thing that was annoying Viktor more than anything,

"I can't believe that its taking so long to find the boss room, in the beta it only took us about a week to clear this bloody floor, its already taken twice that and we're no closer!"

"Come on now Viktor we'll get there and in the mean time we just keep levelling so don't worry," Miyu's response was casual and none of us seemed to have the urgency that Viktor was so obviously showing,

"She's right Viktor," Nenru started up, "it's for the best if we found the boss room after we level even more, you know so it's safer when we do get there," there was logic in his words that none of us but Viktor could argue with and he tried to for a while before even he was forced to concede that it wasn't such a bad thing. After this we had a few drinks and some food and were joking around with each other and after a while the NPC innkeeper wandered over to our table, even though this guy was a program which was part of the game we considered him to be human like the rest of us,

"How are my best customers doing then?" He queried giving a wide grin as he was programmed to do,

"Good thanks. So is there any news round town?" I asked without even thinking, it was the best way to see if there were any new quests or points of interest but lately it hadn't given us any new leads apart from some little errands around town but this time he rubbed the stubble on his face thoughtfully,

"Well now that you mention it I heard from a friend that two guys found a cave, one went in and didn't come back out and the other came back here in a complete state. There'd be some treasure in there for sure!"

He laughed as he walked off but the four of us all looked at each other before launching off into a discussion about what we were going to do about this,

"We do it, end of story," Nenru didn't seem to joke around about this but Miyu piped up,

"The place where we've been training is more than good enough, we level at an alright rate so why risk it?"

"Because our training spot is getting less useful and fast, this place should give us good experience and maybe some good items as well,"

Miyu opened her mouth to retort in some way again but before that could happen I butted in,

"How about we try it, as Nenru said it will be good experience but we can get some teleport crystals so if things turn bad then we can get the hell out of there," Viktor nodded his agreement at my words and the other two agreed, after all it was the sensible decision, we spent the next hour or so planning on how we would do this, but we ended up with very little as we knew next to nothing about this place so we all went to bed early for what we guessed was going to be one long day tomorrow.

The next day I was the first one awake and was downstairs about an hour before the time we agreed on, I couldn't sleep all night because I was worried about what would happen in this dungeon today. The innkeeper brought round a small plate of bread and cheese and smiled at me,

"Seems like something is on your mind, have a plate of this and it should calm you down a bit," I looked at him with wide eyes and thanked him quietly before devouring the meagre breakfast that was put in front of me. About 10 minutes after I finished I heard a set of light footsteps behind me and then Miyu appeared and sat down right next to me,

"You're up early, nervous about today are you?" I couldn't tell if she was joking or if she was being serious but even still this wasn't a time where I could keep my emotions under cover,

"Yeah, I kind of am, I mean we don't know what we'll find in there do we?" I laughed weakly as from asking around about other player's levels it seemed that we were some of the strongest on the game in the early stages and it was something we wanted to improve upon, after all it did increase the chance of getting out of here alive.

"Maybe you should just have some faith in the rest of us, I mean we did kill that massive mob of Nepents, we were fine then so we'll be fine now." She smiled re-assuredly which did make me feel somewhat better even though my stomach was still tossing and turning,

"You definitely won't die will you," I genuinely smiled back at her and she shot back a look full of innocence and fluttered her eyelashes,

"Aww, are you going to protect me? How cute,"

"Protect you? Like hell I will, you're strong enough to do it yourself!" She pouted and stuck out her tongue at the response which made me chuckle and we spent the next 30 minutes or so talking away the time, completely forgetting about what was coming up, that was until Nenru and Viktor came down the stair at the same time,

"Jesus, how long have you two early birds been up?" Viktor was joking around seeming to have woken up well which he always seemed to do. However Nenru was just standing there, dark eyed and silent, he definitely wasn't a morning person and it was kind of funny to see the sharp contrast of them standing right next to each other.

"Does it really matter how long we've been up, let's just get going." I responded curtly, now feeling nervous about this whole idea again, but it was too late to cancel now so we left the safety of the town and headed out toward the marker that had been added to all of our maps. We made our way there in relative silence with all of us seeming to prepare ourselves with what might be ahead. The scenery changed as we walked through the woods, the trees became taller and more ominous, blotting out all sunlight for a time until large walls of rock rose on both sides of us till we all walked in their shade. I felt Miyu shiver next to me whether that was from the colder air or from something else.

At the end of this corridor of rock there stood a giant grey door which was laden with intricate carvings of all different animals forming a giant circle,

"Looks kind of foreboding don't it," Nenru commented casually before the doors cracked open to reveal a set of stair leading down into the darkness,

"How has no-one found this before, this thing is massive," I muttered under my breath, hoping that none of the others heard but Viktor responded,

"Well there still aren't many people about, and even less that would risk coming this deep into these woods," he shrugged, "More for us though so I can't really complain,"

Our conversation was cut off with a shrug of Nenru's shoulders as he strode down the stairs into the dark,

"Who's the one who rushes into things now," I laughed at the turn of events as we all followed him down, when we reached the bottom of the stairs we found Nenru stood there looking surprised at the number of skeletal monsters that were standing before us, we were just about ready to turn around and leave before Viktor moved into the middle of us,

"Don't worry too much, these are weak enemies, we should be fine against them, look, most of them aren't even using a weapon. It's just a deterrent to scare weaker players away," I sighed with utter relief at this and unslung my axe,

"Follow me then troops!" I shouted loudly enough for the mob of skeletons to hear as I unslung my axe and ran straight into the middle swinging wildly with my axe dealing large chunks of damage to any skeleton that came near me, I was laughing loudly as this happened with the other three joining in after a moment or two, this part of the game was fun and it took my mind off the more serious matters that plagued people in this version of reality. It didn't take long for the entire mob to be cleared and none of us took any major amount of damage and as we all joined back up again as we moved through the sole corridor at the opposite side of the room from where we entered.

"I'll take the lead, after all having someone with a shield at the front is the best idea," Viktor's suggestion was a sound one and we all agreed,

"Good idea buddy, I think I'll join you and give you a bit of a hand," I offered as I was the bulkiest one out of the lot of us and could absorb the damage even without a shield, so as me and Viktor moved slightly ahead we pushed onward, only running into a few weak enemies, this was too easy and made me suspicious and it seemed I wasn't the only one,

"Guys, what's going on? I thought this was going to be hard, there's got to be something else…" This was the last I heard from Nenru as me and Viktor fell through a trap in the floor and crashed to the ground far below.

(Nenru POV)

"…coming up!" My voice raised as I saw the two of them fall through the floor, a split second after they disappeared I was standing over the hole in the floor straining my neck to see if there was any sign of them but the hole was deep enough that it swallowed what little light there was.

"Why does this always happen? People always die around me!" Miyu started sobbing uncontrollably which started to annoy me so I grabbed her shoulder and shook her harder than I would have normally liked,

"Stop that! They're not dead Miyu, they're alive down there, just look at their health bar and you'll see they're still in the red!" Even I was surprised to see that though, I thought they would have been goners but I took a deep breath and carried on, "We should move on, they'll be somewhere up ahead,"

Miyu seemed to perk up about this and wiped her eyes so she could calm down a bit and after a few moments we pushed on ahead in relative silence with just a few sniffs coming from Miyu, the two of us never really said much to each other outside of our group so it was kind of awkward but nothing I wasn't used to, the outside world could be cruel and me and CaleM always used to be the odd two out. I dived into my own thoughts as we moved along with no other enemies to speak of, most likely because all the players would be caught in that trap,

"Thanks for that Nenru, I did kind of lose the plot back there," She smiled as she looked at me and I shook my head,

"You really do care about those two don't you?"

"Of course I do, I might not have known them that long but still you guys saved me, I can't thank all of you enough and yeah that includes you Nenru," She stuck out her tongue quickly before continuing, "Why, don't you care?"

"Yeah I do, I mean I've known CaleM for over half my life and we'd be dead without Viktor. I can rely on those two for anything. With you though, it's different, you barely know us so it's just surprising." I spoke in a very matter of fact tone but I was nervous to see whether they would be alright but after another few moments of silence Miyu piped up again,

"You're a good guy Nenru, even if you don't want to admit it," She grinned widely as she spoke and I couldn't help but grin back,

"You Know Miyu, you do know the right things to say, well sometimes anyway,"

"Well I've got a sixth sense about these kinds of things, so you shouldn't be so surprised really." She skipped forward happily as we rounded a corner and right into another mob of skeletons which she just managed to avoid before they mauled her,

"Sixth sense my ass!" I yelled as I drew my rapier and pulled it back to my stomach allowing the sword skill to charge before releasing it and speeding forward,

_Lunge_

The impact of my strike staggered the enemy closest to her and it allowed her to draw her thin dagger and jump onto the nearest enemy like she always did, even I had to admit that the way she dealt with any monsters was impressive and I stood back for a moment in slight admiration before she yelled out above the group of skeletons,

"A bit of help would be much appreciated Nenru!" I snapped out of my reverie and rushed in, skewering multiple monsters and leaving a trail of shards of light behind me, after a couple of minutes of fighting it was clear so we both pulled out health crystals gratefully,

"It's not as easy without the other two taking all the hits," Miyu openly complained about the absence of Viktor and CaleM,

"It's definitely different I'll give you that," I cracked a grin at her, "you don't need protecting do you?" she snorted back,

"Protection, from you? Please we all know you hold me back," she winked at me and giggled before we moved on again laughing with each other for the first time by ourselves. She seemed to be cooler than I thought at first and I felt myself loosen up, that was until we appeared at the edge of a gigantic cavern which lit up with torches lining the sides as soon as we stepped foot inside. At the opposite end of the chamber there was a giant skeleton which was covered in badly fitting armour and it's back was turned, I groaned as I saw this and re-drew my weapon and right beside me I could feel Miyu's breath catch in her throat and she slowly drew her dagger, before we knew it this giant slowly turned toward us and lumbered forward.

(CaleM POV)

I woke up slightly groggy from the fall, I didn't know how long I had been passed out for but I was glad to still be alive after a fall like that, next to me Viktor was stirring as well,

"What happened there?" Viktor groaned as he opened his eyes rubbing his head from where he hit the floor,

"Well Sherlock, I think we fell through a trap in the floor," My response was sarcastic as I sat up noticing my health was dangerously low so I pulled out a health crystal and saw my health shoot back up to the green,

"Alright there grumpy, no need to be so snappy now," He did the same as me and replenished his health, I saved the bickering for a different time as I took in the new surroundings, there was only one way out of this place and that was the dimly lit corridor in front of us,

"We should get going, we need to join up with Miyu and Nenru before something else goes wrong." I stood as I spoke and started moving down the corridor with Viktor only a step behind, the way was littered with stronger enemies, the same skeletons as above but this time they were armed with a variety of rusty looking weapons, even still they weren't so much of a challenge as the groups of them were so small. After some time Viktor broke the silence,

"Who knew all of this would have happened, eh?"

"Me, well kind of anyway, I couldn't sleep all night because I thought something would go wrong and look it has," I scratched my neck absentmindedly as I laughed quietly, "We're all still alive though so I guess that good news in itself," I was very happy about that as I noticed that neither Miyu and Nenru had died as their health bars appeared just under mine.

"Watch out guys, we've got a psychic over here," Viktor shouted out loudly as if making a public announcement,

"Yeah, let me set up a shop and I can con people out of all their money," I joined in with the joke and Viktor snapped his fingers together,

"There's a great business idea, we could make millions!" We both laughed at this and carried on with the singular corridor. It was always typical of Viktor to lighten the mood and was something that was invaluable during these times like this. It took us a long while and multiple enemies in between for us to reach the end of this corridor, it seemed to lead us in zig-zags for about 30 minutes before slowly climbing to bring us onto a terrace which was just big enough for both of us to fit on, this overlooked an ongoing fight between one massive skeleton and two others, when me and Viktor moved over to the edge we saw it was Nenru and Miyu,

"Hey guys! We'll be down now!"

I yelled over trying getting the attention of both of them as I tried to hop over the barrier to go and help, but as I tried I got forced back by something, on the second try the same thing happened I just stood there dumbfounded that I couldn't go to help my two friends on the other side fighting against this massive skeleton. Viktor was right by me looking round wildly for anything that would help us get down but there was nothing else up here so we were forced to stand by and watch in silence as the battle unfolded.

(Nenru POV)

I leapt away from another sweeping attack and just barely avoided taking any damage, my breath was coming in gasps now, the battle had gone on and still neither my or Miyu had been able to land a big blow on the skeleton. Miyu came to stand next to me and she was in the same state that was, the only good thing was that with our high speed we had been able to avoid most of the attacks coming our way so we still had a good amount of health,

"How are we supposed to get through this thing? We've tried everything!" She cried out desperately,

"I don't know, maybe there's something to stun it around here, I started to look around the walls and the ceiling to see if there was something that we could use to our advantage but instead what I saw was Viktor and CaleM both waving frantically and pointing at the joints of their bodies, it then clicked and I really wanted to face palm but instead I got swept aside by the gigantic attack of this thing. I crashed into a wall as Miyu screamed and ran over to help, I saw my health slide straight into the yellow but I was able to get up and nurse myself testing if everything was alright and it appeared fine.

"Miyu look up there," I said pointing in the direction of the other two, "Look what they're doing,"

She looked confused as she tried to work it out, "They're waving and pointing at their joints…"

"Yeah that's right, this thing doesn't have armour over its joints! That's where we attack, it's that obvious!" I let out a gleeful little chuckle as I sped in, easily avoiding the sweeping, slow attacks that were being thrown my way and activated a skill.

_Skewer_

The attack drove home into the left armpit of the skeleton and it staggered howling with rage as a large chunk of health was depleted, it then used its right hand to drag it armour across so it covered that same sport which in turn opened up a gap on its other side,

"This is too easy now Miyu, come on and let's finish this quick," I was casual about this all now as we had figured it all out and it only took a few minutes longer until it collapsed onto one knee and eventually shattered, I let out a huge sigh of relief and sank to the floor as the bonus items appeared on a screen in front of me, one item was called Villagers remains.

"Nenru, Miyu, are you two alright?" CaleM and Viktor were now running over to us having leapt over the barrier of the terrace above,

"Yeah we're fine," I called back, "you two could have helped out though," I was a bit annoyed that they were only coming down now everything was clear,

"We did as much as we could by helping you with the mis-fitting armour but something wouldn't let us get down here until you were finished,"

My head perked up quickly before Miyu responded to Viktor, "Something? That doesn't make any sense,"

"Don't ask us about it Miyu, all we know is we were stuck there until you finished," CaleM answered, letting out a huge sigh of relief as if everyone being safe was a massive weight off of his mind. As I got back up I wiped away the item screen as nothing of much worth appeared and then all of us got a new level notification flagged up,

"There we go, new level and all!" Even with the new level I couldn't help but feel this had kind of been a waste of time, walking toward the exit on the other side of the chamber I allotted the attribute points I received into strength and speed where most of my points had gone. When we walked through the doorway we found ourselves in a tiny tunnel which continually led upwards until we reached the outside again and found we were high up on a hill with no trees in sight which allowed us a perfect view, with the sun beginning to set we could see Horunka town in the distance so we made our way down the hill and back through the forest again.

When we got back to the inn twilight had set in and everything was now becoming dark so we were glad to be back in our usual place and as we sat down in the common room and ate a good but expensive meal of meat, potatoes and vegetables we were approached by another man. He was big and balding with massive arms even though he was quite small,

"Heard you went to the cave I was at, did you…beat that thing?"

"Yeah we did. We found some remains as well." I responded casually seeing where this was going, his eyes began to water slightly,

"My friend came with me and we go separated but I saw him get killed, I know it's a bit much to ask but could you give me the remains, so I can bury him in peace?"

"Of course I will, he deserves that at least," As I said this a trade screen popped up and the remains were on one side,

"Thank you so much! Here, this is everything we found while we were in there, you can have it all, I'm done with all this adventuring." A whole host of items including new weapons, armour and money appeared as well which made me want to jump with glee, I accepted and turned to the others who were quiet during this,

"What did you get?" Viktor blurted out impatiently after I had let the suspense build up a bit,

"I think the better question is what didn't I get," I grinned as I started to run down the list of what was there and at the end all of us were dancing round the table for the rest of the night all giddy with happiness, at around two in the morning CaleM pulled up,

"All right guys, I'm headed off to bed now so see you lot in the morning," It didn't take long for the rest of us to follow suit and about twenty minutes later I was alone in my room. It had been a good day and the items that we got just added to the good feeling going around, now all that was left to do was start moving through all the levels and, with this thought in my mind I fell into an easy sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So what did you guys think? Pretty good huh! Well I hope you liked it at least. All that's left to say is please review and until the next time...**

**PEACE!**


End file.
